I've taken this week off from work to get several things done - relax, do some painting around the house, reading... things like that. Just a nice time to think of things other than work.
I hope everyone had a good Christmas time. It was time well spent with friends and family for me. Since most of my immediate family is FAR from here, I usually spend time during the holidays with friends that had sorta "adopted" me into their families. It's nice how that works out. This year, I was over at Kevin's with Stacey, Kailyn and Zachary. I have a special attachment to Kailyn - she's the first kid that I've been around regularly (as an adult) since her birth. Just watching her grow up is exciting! A few weeks ago we were all getting ready to go and do some shopping together when I asked her to put this ziplock bag of crackers in a pocket or something instead of them just flailing around everywhere. She replied "This coat doesn't have any pockets" and went on about her business. OMG, that is a complete and totally correct reply. That's so, so cool. If I ever have kids, I'll have been spoiled after seeing how Kailyn is growing up.
Enough baby talk.
Kevin was one of the lucky ones that got his hands on an XBOX 360 for Christmas. I'm not a big console game fan anymore but the 360 might change my mind. The Need For Speed game was my favorite. Call of Duty 2 was just tough for me though because I'm used to playing games like that using a keyboard and mouse, not the joypads and such on the XBOX controllers. Can't wait to try out Project Gotham Racing once he gets it.
I've successfully been able to dodge getting sick the past few weeks but I now seem to have come down with a slight sinus thing. That coupled with the fact that I also seem to have developed an allergy to cats. I used to have cats myself without any problems so this is a new thing for me.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Merry Christmas!
No white Christmas for us though, just rain and cool temperatures. I've had a nice couple of days leading up to today. Spent time with my sister and brother-in-law last Thursday evening exchanging presents then having a delicious dinner at Simp McGhee's.
Friday I was off and I spent most of it just laying around and resting. That night I headed to Jeff's new place for this "Festivus" get together. I'm no Seinfeld fanatic like Jeff and Kyle are but I figured what little I knew about Festivus might cause some funny things to happen. I took several pictures through the night, some of which will prove to be pretty funny. After the "airing of greivances", we played a game of Cranium. During the game, I learned that the monk responsible for doing DNA tests with peas was Gregor Mendel. My answer of "St. Francis of Assisi" was waaaaay off. Funniest though was Shane's pronunciation of "famine". He had never seen that word before and pronounced it as "fuh-MEEN". We were all rollin'!
Friday I was off and I spent most of it just laying around and resting. That night I headed to Jeff's new place for this "Festivus" get together. I'm no Seinfeld fanatic like Jeff and Kyle are but I figured what little I knew about Festivus might cause some funny things to happen. I took several pictures through the night, some of which will prove to be pretty funny. After the "airing of greivances", we played a game of Cranium. During the game, I learned that the monk responsible for doing DNA tests with peas was Gregor Mendel. My answer of "St. Francis of Assisi" was waaaaay off. Funniest though was Shane's pronunciation of "famine". He had never seen that word before and pronounced it as "fuh-MEEN". We were all rollin'!
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Been a week already?
Okay, so much for trying to get back to a regular posting schedule... not that anyone's losing sleep over my lack of posting. ;-)
Last week was a busy one with a brief pause on Wednesday while I fought off some kind of ailment. I wasn't feeling all that great Monday evening. Tuesday was on and off. Wednesday was miserable. I stayed in bed and rested. Drank plenty of orange juice and several bowls of chicken soup. Thursday I got back into the swing of things. Glad I nipped that in the bud. Being sick over the holidays is a major downer.
Did some of my Christmas shopping Friday with the Burns since I needed the use of their SUV for a large object I was aquiring (heh). We made quick work of the shopping then headed off to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. The Burns crew stayed in the car while I waited on a table at the bar inside. Ordered something to drink and got asked for my ID. The guy said "whoa!" and asked one of the other bartenders to guess how old I was. They were way off... in a good way. At least I have that youthful look going in my favor these days. When we finally got seated, I had an awesome dinner - 9 oz. filet along with a grilled lobster tail and fresh veggies. Mmmmmm! That was delicious. We all left their stuffed.
Saturday rolled around. I was lazing around in bed thinking about what if anything I wanted to accomplish that day when the phone rang, it was Kyle. I knew he had a video job scheduled for today taping 2 performances of the Nutcracker Suite. I figured he was calling to ask me to run a camera. Well he did, sorta. My camera. Seems like the photographer that was lined up to shoot the event for the studio came down with the flu. They really only needed me for the evening show and not the afternoon matinee but because of the challenging shooting conditions - low light and fast movement, I thought it would be time well spent to take light measurements and test shots to be ready for the real deal at night. I was right.
A funny thing happened as I was getting situated before the evening performance though... you see, in the program there's a male Chinese dancer playing the part of the Sugar Plum Cavalier. His name is Wei. That's all you need to know. Now, I'm there in the floor of the center aisle checking all my camera settings and laying out my stuff so I'll know where to find it in the dark when an elderly lady taps me on the shoulder. "Could you sign another (show) program for my grand daughter? She must have laid the one you signed before down somewhere and someone picked it up." For a moment, I wasn't sure what she meant. Then I realized... oh, she's confusing me with the dancing Asian. I politely mentioned (and I'm laughing inside at this point) that I didn't sign the progam before to which she replied "Are you sure?". Sigh. I was so busy during the performance, I forgot to look back at her to see her reaction when Wei came out to perform. Oh well. Funny stuff.
Last week was a busy one with a brief pause on Wednesday while I fought off some kind of ailment. I wasn't feeling all that great Monday evening. Tuesday was on and off. Wednesday was miserable. I stayed in bed and rested. Drank plenty of orange juice and several bowls of chicken soup. Thursday I got back into the swing of things. Glad I nipped that in the bud. Being sick over the holidays is a major downer.
Did some of my Christmas shopping Friday with the Burns since I needed the use of their SUV for a large object I was aquiring (heh). We made quick work of the shopping then headed off to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. The Burns crew stayed in the car while I waited on a table at the bar inside. Ordered something to drink and got asked for my ID. The guy said "whoa!" and asked one of the other bartenders to guess how old I was. They were way off... in a good way. At least I have that youthful look going in my favor these days. When we finally got seated, I had an awesome dinner - 9 oz. filet along with a grilled lobster tail and fresh veggies. Mmmmmm! That was delicious. We all left their stuffed.
Saturday rolled around. I was lazing around in bed thinking about what if anything I wanted to accomplish that day when the phone rang, it was Kyle. I knew he had a video job scheduled for today taping 2 performances of the Nutcracker Suite. I figured he was calling to ask me to run a camera. Well he did, sorta. My camera. Seems like the photographer that was lined up to shoot the event for the studio came down with the flu. They really only needed me for the evening show and not the afternoon matinee but because of the challenging shooting conditions - low light and fast movement, I thought it would be time well spent to take light measurements and test shots to be ready for the real deal at night. I was right.
A funny thing happened as I was getting situated before the evening performance though... you see, in the program there's a male Chinese dancer playing the part of the Sugar Plum Cavalier. His name is Wei. That's all you need to know. Now, I'm there in the floor of the center aisle checking all my camera settings and laying out my stuff so I'll know where to find it in the dark when an elderly lady taps me on the shoulder. "Could you sign another (show) program for my grand daughter? She must have laid the one you signed before down somewhere and someone picked it up." For a moment, I wasn't sure what she meant. Then I realized... oh, she's confusing me with the dancing Asian. I politely mentioned (and I'm laughing inside at this point) that I didn't sign the progam before to which she replied "Are you sure?". Sigh. I was so busy during the performance, I forgot to look back at her to see her reaction when Wei came out to perform. Oh well. Funny stuff.
Monday, December 12, 2005
Back to normal.
Hopefully, I can get back to a more regular routine of blogging. Been pretty busy the last few weeks and dropped the ball on posting.
Did any of you hear about the brouhaha regarding Sony's rootkit thingy? If you played one of about 50 different recent titles on your PC, some software was secretly installed on your PC to hide the presence of Sony's anti-copying software. The bigger problem was that this same techniqe Sony used could be utilized by hackers to hide stuff on your PC as well. I had one CD - Chris Botti "To Love Again". Good sax player. Gonna see him in March at the Princess Theater here in town. Luckily, I didn't play the CD on my PC, just in my car. Now theres a big recall of all the CD's that had this software on it and Sony's getting sued left and right.
Anyone there have a lot of spare cash around and want to buy me some camera gear for Christmas? Doesn't hurt to ask. There are a few lenses I would like. First, a wide angle. Canon's 10-22 is nice as is their 16-35 2.8L. On the long end, I'd like Canon's 70-200 2.8L IS lens. Lately, I've found that I've needed a wide lens quite often and have resorted to using my office's Nikon since it has as 12-24 mm lens. I don't mind using it but I'm used to how my Canon works and would prefer it.
Oh... also on the photography side of things - some of my drumming photos can now be seen at Drummerworld. I have photos in the Steve Gadd, Akira Jimbo, Thomas Lang, Johnny Rabb and Chester Thompson pages.
Did any of you hear about the brouhaha regarding Sony's rootkit thingy? If you played one of about 50 different recent titles on your PC, some software was secretly installed on your PC to hide the presence of Sony's anti-copying software. The bigger problem was that this same techniqe Sony used could be utilized by hackers to hide stuff on your PC as well. I had one CD - Chris Botti "To Love Again". Good sax player. Gonna see him in March at the Princess Theater here in town. Luckily, I didn't play the CD on my PC, just in my car. Now theres a big recall of all the CD's that had this software on it and Sony's getting sued left and right.
Anyone there have a lot of spare cash around and want to buy me some camera gear for Christmas? Doesn't hurt to ask. There are a few lenses I would like. First, a wide angle. Canon's 10-22 is nice as is their 16-35 2.8L. On the long end, I'd like Canon's 70-200 2.8L IS lens. Lately, I've found that I've needed a wide lens quite often and have resorted to using my office's Nikon since it has as 12-24 mm lens. I don't mind using it but I'm used to how my Canon works and would prefer it.
Oh... also on the photography side of things - some of my drumming photos can now be seen at Drummerworld. I have photos in the Steve Gadd, Akira Jimbo, Thomas Lang, Johnny Rabb and Chester Thompson pages.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
The Gala
Last Friday was the date of the annual Decatur General Foundation Gala. It's considered the biggest social event in town hands-down. I wish I could have taken better photos but all I brought was my pocket camera and not my big digital rig. The flash on the small cameras is pretty much useless if you get more than a couple of feet away from your subject. The picture of the group below would have turned out awesome otherwise. Oh well.
Dinner was delicious. The salad, the filet, the dessert... all very good. The best part was seeing so many friends and clients there. The tuxedos and evening gowns had everyone (for the most part) looking stunning! After all the formal honors were done, I danced with friends well into the night.
Woke up for the 2nd time Saturday around 1:00PM with a bit of a headache. Nice. Spent most of the day doing things around the house until around 4 when met up with Lesa as she was trying to take some photos of a friends decorated home in the older part of town. Once that was done, met up with Kyle and Jethro for some food at Hooters. Ran into Larry there from the gala the night before. I heard from him that one of our group had wiped out on her way from the bathroom and got all bruised up and chipped a tooth in the process! Yikes! This was after Ellen and I had left. I'll have to check on her tomorrow and see how she's doing. Kyle started making noises about needing to get in bed and Jeff pointed out how it wasn't even 9:00 yet. We did end up going to shoot pool for awhile which was a nice way to wind things down. Driving to Huntsville just to eat at Hooters and drive all the way back to Decatur would have been a waste. Even so, my wings there were good.
Today at church, all the band fun was exciting to watch. I wasn't drumming today so I got to smile at the stuff I'm usually involved in. One of the funniest parts was during one of Kyle's solos... he took off like a rocket and left the band behind... he was movin... I later found out that this was better than what happened at the earlier service where he finished his solo several measures in front of the rest of the band. See - church can be fun and exciting! Kerry had a mishap when the battery to his in-ear monitor died before one of the songs. He didn't get his battery changed out in time so when Kevin turned around to cue him to come in - as Yoda would say "ready not was he". LOL! Even so, it all came out good in the end. I've definitely had my share of mishaps too but I try to keep them to a minimum or COVER THEM UP really well. ;-)
Had lunch with a bunch at Applebees. Good times. Tried to return my tux today and found out the shop was closed on Sundays. Great. I'll have to do that tomorrow now I guess.
Oh, I made a dreaded trip to Wal-Mart tonight for supplies... water, dog food, detergent and softener (fabric, not stool) and light bulbs. Suprisingly, it wasn't crowded and I got through the checkout in like 3 minutes! Amazing I tell ya.
Dinner was delicious. The salad, the filet, the dessert... all very good. The best part was seeing so many friends and clients there. The tuxedos and evening gowns had everyone (for the most part) looking stunning! After all the formal honors were done, I danced with friends well into the night.
Woke up for the 2nd time Saturday around 1:00PM with a bit of a headache. Nice. Spent most of the day doing things around the house until around 4 when met up with Lesa as she was trying to take some photos of a friends decorated home in the older part of town. Once that was done, met up with Kyle and Jethro for some food at Hooters. Ran into Larry there from the gala the night before. I heard from him that one of our group had wiped out on her way from the bathroom and got all bruised up and chipped a tooth in the process! Yikes! This was after Ellen and I had left. I'll have to check on her tomorrow and see how she's doing. Kyle started making noises about needing to get in bed and Jeff pointed out how it wasn't even 9:00 yet. We did end up going to shoot pool for awhile which was a nice way to wind things down. Driving to Huntsville just to eat at Hooters and drive all the way back to Decatur would have been a waste. Even so, my wings there were good.
Today at church, all the band fun was exciting to watch. I wasn't drumming today so I got to smile at the stuff I'm usually involved in. One of the funniest parts was during one of Kyle's solos... he took off like a rocket and left the band behind... he was movin... I later found out that this was better than what happened at the earlier service where he finished his solo several measures in front of the rest of the band. See - church can be fun and exciting! Kerry had a mishap when the battery to his in-ear monitor died before one of the songs. He didn't get his battery changed out in time so when Kevin turned around to cue him to come in - as Yoda would say "ready not was he". LOL! Even so, it all came out good in the end. I've definitely had my share of mishaps too but I try to keep them to a minimum or COVER THEM UP really well. ;-)
Had lunch with a bunch at Applebees. Good times. Tried to return my tux today and found out the shop was closed on Sundays. Great. I'll have to do that tomorrow now I guess.
Oh, I made a dreaded trip to Wal-Mart tonight for supplies... water, dog food, detergent and softener (fabric, not stool) and light bulbs. Suprisingly, it wasn't crowded and I got through the checkout in like 3 minutes! Amazing I tell ya.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Appalling
Wow. I just found out that one of my friends in the food service business got propositioned by a "regular" to sleep with them for $2000. When she declined, the offer came back for a kiss for $500. She declined that too. We all joked that for $500, a kiss wouldn't be too bad. While that's funny, I admire her for what she did (or didn't do in this case).
Anyway.
It was COLD this morning! Had to let Kelsey in last night as the temps dropped into the teens. She's such a good dog. I let her in and she goes straight to the back spare bathroom and curls up on the floor. That's my girl.
After work today I was tired so I laid down to rest for a bit before venturing out. I did some Christmas shopping and also picked up my tux for the thing this Friday. Saw Nikki pimpin' panties at Vic's Secret and talked to her for a little before heading on. Guess I'm in for the night - another cold one.
Anyway.
It was COLD this morning! Had to let Kelsey in last night as the temps dropped into the teens. She's such a good dog. I let her in and she goes straight to the back spare bathroom and curls up on the floor. That's my girl.
After work today I was tired so I laid down to rest for a bit before venturing out. I did some Christmas shopping and also picked up my tux for the thing this Friday. Saw Nikki pimpin' panties at Vic's Secret and talked to her for a little before heading on. Guess I'm in for the night - another cold one.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Soggy Sunday
I went to bed briefly last night only to be awakened by the sound of strong wind and driving rain at about 1:00AM. Normally, I'd just roll over and go back to sleep but it sounded kinda severe so I got up to see what the news was saying about it. Immediately they had a radar image up on screen showing the storm hitting my area at 1:13AM, just a few minutes away. I unplugged all my important stuff and watched the storm go by. The winds were reportedly blowing at about 70 MPH. From what I saw I could believe it! Luckily the worst part of the storm passed by in just a few minutes and I crawled back into bed.
Woke up to find I had received an email from the webmaster of a drumming site over in Switzerland. Remember the Steve Gadd clinic I attended earlier this year and took photos at? Well, turns out some of my photos ended up on this guy's site. I ran across it by accident when I visited and saw a photo of Steve that looked VERY familiar. It looked familiar because I took it! Anyway, I emailed the webmaster and explained the situation. He was very gracious and credited me for the photos which was all I was asking. Nice folks those Swiss.
I had to play the bongos for one song today in church. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to practice with hand percussion regularly so that when I have to do it, it wouldn't be so uncomfortable. When we were warming up, I started playing and realized the humidity had allowed the heads to stretch and now the bongos were SUPER flat and way outta tune. I got it tuned properly before we had to play "for real" but I'm glad I discovered the tuning problem in time or it would have really taken away from the song.
Had a good funny moment right at the beginning of the first service when Kevin turned around to me and mouthed "eight beats". I had that deer-in-the-headlights look for a moment until I realized that he was reminding me that I was supposed to do count off 8 beats at the beginning. Sheesh... getting old. Everything turned out okay though as it always does.
Rain, rain and more rain. That was the order of the day. I snuck in a nap since I didn't get as much rest because of the early morning storms. Showed up for our church's holiday dinner along with a whole bunch of others. Dana had asked me to bring along my camera which I happily obliged. From what I've had a chance to look at, I was able to get several good shots. Should make everyone happy. Now I'm stuffed. Time for bed again.
Woke up to find I had received an email from the webmaster of a drumming site over in Switzerland. Remember the Steve Gadd clinic I attended earlier this year and took photos at? Well, turns out some of my photos ended up on this guy's site. I ran across it by accident when I visited and saw a photo of Steve that looked VERY familiar. It looked familiar because I took it! Anyway, I emailed the webmaster and explained the situation. He was very gracious and credited me for the photos which was all I was asking. Nice folks those Swiss.
I had to play the bongos for one song today in church. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to practice with hand percussion regularly so that when I have to do it, it wouldn't be so uncomfortable. When we were warming up, I started playing and realized the humidity had allowed the heads to stretch and now the bongos were SUPER flat and way outta tune. I got it tuned properly before we had to play "for real" but I'm glad I discovered the tuning problem in time or it would have really taken away from the song.
Had a good funny moment right at the beginning of the first service when Kevin turned around to me and mouthed "eight beats". I had that deer-in-the-headlights look for a moment until I realized that he was reminding me that I was supposed to do count off 8 beats at the beginning. Sheesh... getting old. Everything turned out okay though as it always does.
Rain, rain and more rain. That was the order of the day. I snuck in a nap since I didn't get as much rest because of the early morning storms. Showed up for our church's holiday dinner along with a whole bunch of others. Dana had asked me to bring along my camera which I happily obliged. From what I've had a chance to look at, I was able to get several good shots. Should make everyone happy. Now I'm stuffed. Time for bed again.
Saturday, December 03, 2005
I'm right over here...
So much for regular blog updates! With the holidays upon us, I've got all sorts of things going on leaving very little time to blog as much as I had in the past. Anyhoo... let's see what's new:
Remember my friend Brian with the #20 Home Depot car? He ran weekend before last at Daytona assisted by Bernie and Bill, my partners in crime back when I was doing time at Intergraph. Anyway, going through the tri-oval on the track the car reached 208 MPH. That's right, TWO HUNDRED EIGHT miles per hour. (That's 334 KPH for my readers using the metric system) Fast no matter how you look at it. Congrats to Brian and the rest of the team for their great season. I wish I could have been there!
Earlier this week, I had that "feeling" you get right before you get sick. I immediately kept myself extra warm, ate chicken soup, lots of juice and rested. It all worked as I'm doing fine here several days later. I'm doing all I can to take care - staying warm, staying away from sick folks and washing my hands frequently. Speaking of sickness, here's a little health nugget I picked up this week: when visiting the Dr's office, bring your OWN PEN to sign in with. That makes complete sense to avoid handling something that every other sick person there has touched! Sure you can get sick other ways but that's one big source you can try and avoid.
I had some excitement Thursday night when Kyle hauled me along to a drumming clinic he was videotaping over in Huntsville. Had a good time and came away with a free Zildjian t-shirt and a drum pedal. I would have rather won one of the snare drums they were also giving away but hey, what I got was better than nothing right?
My weekend is shaping up to be a busy one - been shopping with my sister all morning then have a dinner theater to attend tonight. I play in church tomorrow then have our holiday dinner tomorrow night. Food everywhere. Yum!
Remember my friend Brian with the #20 Home Depot car? He ran weekend before last at Daytona assisted by Bernie and Bill, my partners in crime back when I was doing time at Intergraph. Anyway, going through the tri-oval on the track the car reached 208 MPH. That's right, TWO HUNDRED EIGHT miles per hour. (That's 334 KPH for my readers using the metric system) Fast no matter how you look at it. Congrats to Brian and the rest of the team for their great season. I wish I could have been there!
Earlier this week, I had that "feeling" you get right before you get sick. I immediately kept myself extra warm, ate chicken soup, lots of juice and rested. It all worked as I'm doing fine here several days later. I'm doing all I can to take care - staying warm, staying away from sick folks and washing my hands frequently. Speaking of sickness, here's a little health nugget I picked up this week: when visiting the Dr's office, bring your OWN PEN to sign in with. That makes complete sense to avoid handling something that every other sick person there has touched! Sure you can get sick other ways but that's one big source you can try and avoid.
I had some excitement Thursday night when Kyle hauled me along to a drumming clinic he was videotaping over in Huntsville. Had a good time and came away with a free Zildjian t-shirt and a drum pedal. I would have rather won one of the snare drums they were also giving away but hey, what I got was better than nothing right?
My weekend is shaping up to be a busy one - been shopping with my sister all morning then have a dinner theater to attend tonight. I play in church tomorrow then have our holiday dinner tomorrow night. Food everywhere. Yum!
